MY FINAL MESSAGE TO THE 196 COMMUNITY
07/28/2026
Today I leave the 196 community and chat, both as a moderator and as a user. It has become overwhelmingly clear that I am no longer welcome here. I would like to preface this message with a request not to harass the current mods of this community. This is a difficult time with all the drama going on, and I do not intend to start another. The following message is not made to accuse anyone in particular nor to place blame. I simply wish to explain my side of the story and be done; consider this closure to the community that I have worked so hard to build up.
This started, well actually, months ago. I slowly began reading more theory, spending more time with other leftists I strongly disagree with, and finding myself having conversations with people that some in this community would consider off limits. I had overwhelmingly positive conversations with them because I was not outright hostile to them. I slowly began to realize that anarchists have much more in common with other leftists than libs.
Then the tesseract situation happened, and that truly opened my eyes. They did not see any difference between Anarchists, Communists, general leftists, or even just Queer people and minorities. It became clear to me that people like them view all of us through the same lens of hostility and anger. So I asked the question: if they see us all as the same, then why must we keep fighting? Just as we were all attacked on that day, the communists made noise to defend the anarchists. Despite how hostile we have been to them, they were more than willing to forgive and forget (I suspect they still are).
What broke the camel’s back here was my open call in the 196 community that we should simply have a discussion. I called for a public discussion there, and I will call for a public discussion here as well. All I asked for is that we should discuss the possibility of not being hostile. I ask not that people here agree with the communists, I ask not even that people here accept them, I simply request that people here not be hostile or at least consider the possibility of not being hostile.
I understand and respect the decision made by the mods here; this will be my final message in this community. After this point, I will no longer engage in the chat or here. If anyone here agrees with what I have said so far, then I urge you to join my community. It’s not a splinter of 196 nor is it a replacement; it is simply a different community with a different goal. I thank you all for the memories here. Goodbye.
Links: https://matrix.to/#/#FURF:catgirl.cloud
- Kittenzrulz123
Extremism should not be tolerated nor allowed to infect legitimate discourse.
Anyone who is supporting or defending authoritarianism and dictatorships is an extremist in my eyes. Authoritarian apologists and those who downplay or handwave away acts of genocide and tyranny are extremist in my eyes.
Stating that it’s “hostile” to exclude such viewpoints is not a good faith position to take in my opinion. I’m tired of extremists on both ends of the spectrum insisting that their viewpoints must be tolerated in a given community’s discourse, and I’d prefer that 196 continue to keep those voices out.
If anyone considers that a “hostile” position then they’re not someone I care to interact with. This isn’t something I care to debate, either, so don’t expect me to engage with any replies.
As an anti-authoritarian, this is way too oversimplified of a reason to be against authoritarianism. ‘Extremism’ is a practically meaningless word that tends to translate to “this person’s methods for enacting political change scare me, therefore they are Bad” and is usually used to incarcerate black and brown people who don’t perform acceptability for white people. If you genuinely consider yourself for collective liberation, I implore you to think with more nuance here. There are plenty of reasons to dislike tankies that aren’t just vague liberal sentiments
I agree that the word “extremist” is misused here, though I still agree with the points themselves. That said, please elaborate on the other reasons you mentioned!
Authoritarian communism is predicated on the contradictory idea that their government–which, being a state, is legitimized by its monopoly on violence–is able to accurately reflect the mechanics of dialectical materialism in its decision-making and attempts to serve the working class. I don’t believe those two things can work together. You are inherently restricting the revolution by deciding that certain groups are allowed to use force while others are not.
Extremism should not be tolerated nor allowed to infect legitimate discourse.
We’re on Lemmy. By some definition we’re all extremists. This language is bad.
Anyone who is supporting or defending authoritarianism and dictatorships is an extremist in my eyes. Authoritarian apologists and those who downplay or handwave away acts of genocide and tyranny are extremist in my eyes.
This is correct. This post is about Anarchists being more aligned with other leftists, which is true. However, Anarchists must be against Authoritarians, and I’d argue leftists in general should be. I don’t consider tankies to be leftists, because they aren’t advocating to protect the people over the elites/owners.
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That’s a lot of words for “I think we solve oppression with MY version of oppression” but hey, thats just me.
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What makes you not one of those Nazis?
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Are you not symothising for an auyhoratirian regime? Like a Nazi?
You long winded whinge said nothing in general. There was not a single fact there.
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Historically, we Anarchists called left-authoritarians Red Fash, and have a long and bloody history of being betrayed and murdered by them once they see their chance at consolidating power.
But the left unity they said would happen… Surely this time they won’t kill us.
Why would the people who want to be greedy with power until the ruse of workers empowerment lie to us?!
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What makes you qualified? You sound like a fucking dip shit.
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Fuck off tankie
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Who said anything against violence? I just think tankies are as deserving of it as the scum on the right.
what the hell did I miss?
Same here. I’m fairly anarchist leaning and I’ve never seen anything that came across as hostile towards anarchists in this community. Usually the opposite.
More tesseract fallout/drama, I’m guessing.
It’s because Kitten supports the USSR and thinks she’s somehow an anarchist for supporting states pretending to be socialist.
I want to say that I agree with you that Anarchists are more aligned with other leftists, which should be obvious to everyone. I want to push back on the idea we should be aligned with Authoritarians though. Even if they say they’re leftist, if they aren’t advocating for the people over the elites, they aren’t leftist. Modern day Russia, in particular, is an incredibly conservative authoritarian oligarchy. They do not align with the left. People defending them are not on our side. As nice as some of those defending it may be, they’re not being honest if you think they’re leftist. This doesn’t mean they’re always wrong (no one is), but everything should be viewed critically first.
Holy shit, what a mess. I’m sorry you’re dealing with that over there. Wtf.
- Called out for being a Tankie
- “No I’m not being one”
- Immediately does things Tankies do
- Gets called out
- Leaves to Tankie space and makes Hexbear their main
- “yeah being called out made me go Tankie”
Once again, it’s reactionaries screaming how the left made them leave their morals and standards behind. Shocking.
thank you for all your work here still 🧡
that 196 explicitly puts marxism-leninism on the same level of badness as nazism and white supremacy is ridiculous and shameful. i hope the mods here can come to their senses eventually and i hope your interactions with them weren’t too hostile…
good luck with your new community! i’ve subscribed 🧡
that 196 explicitly puts marxism-leninism on the same level of badness as nazism and white supremacy is ridiculous and shameful.
Stalin wasn’t kind to queer folk. It’s weird that queer folk support the man who would have had them killed.
But I guess if there’s Argentinan Nazis, there’s queer Stalinists. Slugs for salt.
marxism-leninism itself is not queerphobic… and i don’t really see what stalin has to do with this anyway, marxism-leninism is named after two people and, as you can see, none of them are stalin!
nazism, meanwhile, is explicitly queerphobic (and antisemitic, racist, ableist, mysoginistic… you don’t need me to write the whole list). so no, the two aren’t comparable, even if some MLs (like stalin) were bigots. sorry.
Sure, just ask the ghost of a dead dictator to change how he handled queer people.
If the biggest states that support the ideology are hateful to queers, what does that say about the ideology?
that these states are bigoted and hypocritical
many (most!) electoral democracies are racist and queerphobic too. is electoral democracy inherently racist and queerphobic?
When systems in place are queerphobic, they are queerphobic. Not a hard thing to grasp.
I think what you’re saying is disingenuous, Stalin wasn’t simply “some ML” he’s the creator of this ideology.
marxism-leninism is named after two people and, as you can see, none of them are stalin!
Marxism-Leninism is literally otherwise known as Stalinism
You mean someone with sympathies to dictatorships is dishonest? 😲
Is it the same thing? I don’t agree with either but I wasn’t aware that the terms were interchangeable.
Modern day Russia is queerphobic though, and is not leftist. The defence of modern Russia is the biggest part of the issue. They’re a right-wing authoritarian oligarchy who gets support by appealing to a past that was on the left, but has little to do with them today. It does not represent the workers.
But Hexbear said critical support to Russia was needed because of reasons only they believe in. Clearly it’s socialist! Just look at all the workers rights they have.
It doesn’t, it puts some fanboys of the actual faulty implementations of said idea on the same level, given that they would have killed queers. It’s you who is equating Marxism-Leninism with tankies. It’s not their ideology on socialism that is the issue, it’s their love for countries at times where queer people would be killed for being so.
Where does this community equate nazism and marxism-leninism (and derivatives) except that neither is welcome?
Like, battery and murder are both bad, but one is clearly worse than the other. Condoning neither does not equate them.
It doesn’t, they have to make things up.
MY FINAL MESSAGE TO THE 196 COMMUNITY
Buuuuuuuuuuuurp 🫢 Excuse me. 😅
Hey, I don’t know you and I don’t know how much you depend on the Internet for your social safety net, but it might be good to take this as a cue to step back from social media a bit, at least the discussion of politics
having your understanding of the world change in a way that means you don’t fit in a particular online community anymore doesn’t seem to necessitate going offline completely?
unless you think your viewpoint is the exclusively correct one and anyone who doesn’t share it should remove themselves from the internet and/or discussing politics
I’ve not been here for very long and I don’t intend to voice my opinion on anything, but I want to say this: The way you and the other mods are handling this drama is so refreshingly mature for an online space. With the Tesseract thing and the various tantrums being thrown in its wake still fresh on our minds, the way you’re leaving is incredibly graceful. So, all the best to you, kind stranger.
also btw i just saw the other post, explaining the reasoning. uhm i feel like i should say something about it for some reason. first of all i’m really sorry for you. i know how it feels like to be kicked out of a community that you thought were your friends all of a sudden (has happened to me. sucked). i just really want to give you a hug rn. also, don’t take the ideological differences too serious. we’re all humans and that’s what matters. i hope that you can find a way forward in life that makes you stay human. that’s all.
oh, i’m a bit surprised honestly and i remember having good discussions with you. sure, we might not agree on everything, but i think at least you’re trying to build a better world, and i can honor and respect that.
i’m not gonna join your matrix chat group mostly because i don’t have the mental energy to take on another massive project (which i guess it will be). my advice for you is to remember your own situation and make sure that you don’t burn more resources than you have, in other words: that you don’t burn yourself out.
goodbye, farewell~ (for now)
From an outsider’s perspective, this all seems like it was handled in a very reasonable and adult manner, which I very much appreciate. For folks (like me) on other instances, the link !libertyhub@lemmy.dbzer0.com should make it easier to join your new community.
Excuse me, but as a moderator of the original c/libertyhub, I have to disagree.
See this post.
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/73031377
Edit: here’s a link to the original LibertyHub community !libertyhub@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Ah, my bad, I wasn’t subbed to the original libertyhub; I meant as a subscriber here. Sorry I diminished the unpleasantness this brought to your community.
No apology necessary ❤️🖤
I don’t really have time to read all of the screenshots, so were they actually defending tankies? Or was it just defending communism? Because I’m generally fine with many communist ideals, but supporting the actions of authoritarian regimes is a nono in my book.
It’s full-on defense of tankies, I’m afraid. They unfortunately completely drank the coolaid :(
As a theory on why that may have happened; Marxist-Leninist groups can offer a feeling of belonging, friendship, a comforting worldview, and the belief that if we just follow the directions of long dead prophet-like historical figures (Lenin, Stalin, etc), then we will someday have heaven on earth. These are extremely appealing aspects to someone who may be very lonely, or who may have suffered a severe trauma and may not have their basic needs met (which may also be what leads to some people being attracted to the MAGA cult)
To someone well versed in history and a desire to find multiple viewpoints for a historical event to avoid propaganda bubbles, the true nature of ML/Stalinism and its authoritarianism becomes self-evident. But for those who never went down that path and are in a vulnerable state, a ‘scientific’ cult offering you hope, meaning, and companionship is very easy to fall into, and thus willingly self-delude themselves to attain in-group status.
Just like with normal religions/cults, once they are deep inside it, they are heavily encouraged by the in-group to suspect any outside information that challenges their narratives or isn’t approved by the group, and thus the cognitive dissonance they could create if looked at more objectively can mostly be avoided.
Then the tesseract situation happened, and that truly opened my eyes. They did not see any difference between Anarchists, Communists, general leftists, or even just Queer people and minorities. It became clear to me that people like them view all of us through the same lens of hostility and anger. So I asked the question: if they see us all as the same, then why must we keep fighting? Just as we were all attacked on that day, the communists made noise to defend the anarchists. Despite how hostile we have been to them, they were more than willing to forgive and forget (I suspect they still are).
Hah just want to add that this argument is what made me go vegan lol. They were using techniques and machinery from animal ag during the holocaust in the work camps for instance. To the capitalists keeping us alive is just an expenditure that needs to be minimised, human or non-human matters only insofar as what they can use. If a disabled person is less useful to them than a chicken then guess who goes into the gas chamber? They don’t make a distinction between profit from a human or profit from a non-human so why should I? I recognise this line of thinking very well because of that, finding yourself lumped in with others as the designated enemy makes one look at those who are also considered enemies in a completely different light.
What did i miss?
Kitten got upset for being called out. Then tried to take over a community on Blahaj in retaliation while claiming it’s unrelated. Got removed as Admin. Ran away to hexbear because that’s better for her.
Because Kitten is a tankie, and that’s what they do. Attempt to grab power, run away when questioned.
